Children enjoy drawing, painting, and playing with bright and multiple coloured toys and other pieces. Numerous designs are known for providing simple activity centres or drawing tools comprising a flat board onto which paper, or the like can be attached and onto which, a child can attached letters, shaped designs, or the like, or draw free-hand to produce an image.
While these types of devices are generally well received by most children, it would still be advantageous to provide an alternative activity toy that would allow the child to “paint” a picture using brightly coloured pieces, and then be able to collect, sort and re-use those pieces to produce additional images.
In our co-pending U.S. patent application No. 61/389,680, we have previously described such a toy, and the contents of that document are incorporated herein, by reference.
The present inventors have now discovered improved methods of dispensing the coloured pieces, or “discs” using specifically designed dispensers, and have also provided improved methods for collecting and sorting of the discs so that they can be placed back into the appropriate dispenser—ready for re-use.
As such, a child of at least three or four years of age may be trained to fully enjoy the toy by learning how to remove coloured discs from its planar surface, sort them by colour using an aspect of the present invention to be taught hereafter, and refilling the specific dispensers with specific designated colours, also using an aspect of the present invention to be taught hereafter. This teaches the child such matters as self-discipline, eye-hand coordination, patience, and visual enjoyment.